Last night, our kitchen magically morphed into healthy Panda Express:
I remember the exact day Panda Express showed up at our local shopping mall. I was in 7th grade—the age where girls ditch their parents, get glammed up in more makeup than kabuki performers, and hang out at the mall every single weekend, feeling incredibly cool and grown up.
After Panda Express moved in, you suddenly couldn’t set foot in the building without being hit by the addictive aroma of their orange sesame sauce. It called to us as we perused the displays of glitter eyeliner at Sephora. (Why did I ever think sparkly neon green eyeliner was a good look for me?) It beckoned to us while we debated the pink pleather pants from Wet Seal. (Sadly, I did end up buying a pair.) And then, as we purchased our much-too-short shorts at Abercrombie and Fitch, the orange sesame aroma practically screamed to us. (Perhaps it was simply trying to be heard over A&F’s ridiculously-loud music.)
Finally, we’d give in to temptation, devouring every sweet orange bite.
Last night we thought it’d be fun to make a Panda-inspired dinner, complete with chopsticks and Chinese takeout containers from Michaels. At first I thought to make tofu. But… cauliflower just seemed way more fun! For the cauliflower, I used: this cauliflower recipe.
(If you’d prefer, you can make “popcorn cauliflower” by combining 1/2 cup any type of flour with 1/2 cup water, dipping cauliflower florets into this mixture, baking 20 minutes at 425F, then pouring the sauce on top and baking another few minutes.)
To recreate Panda Express’s “secret” sauce, I first looked at the ingredients in their bottled sauce and many copycat recipes online. Then I gathered some basic ingredients common in all of the recipes (vinegar, garlic, ginger…) and played around with the proportions until the sauce tasted just as good as better than the one from Panda Express. What follows is some really, really good sauce.
You’ll want to put it on everything!
Healthy Panda Express Orange Sauce
- 1/2 cup vegetable broth (120g)
- 2 tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot (30g)
- 3-4 tbsp orange marmalade (45-60g)
- 2 tbsp minced garlic (30g)
- 1/2 tsp powdered ginger
- 2 tbsp + 2 tsp rice vinegar (45g)
- 2 stevia packets, or 2 tbsp sugar (Liquid sweetener will work; just use a bit more cornstarch for thickening.)
- 2 tbsp soy sauce or gf tamari (30g)
- optional: 1 tsp sesame oil
- optional: green onions for garnish, crushed red chilis for a spicy variation
Whisk broth and cornstarch or arrowroot until dissolved. Now turn on the heat to low-medium and add all other ingredients. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Once it’s thickened, remove from heat. Makes 300g (about 1 1/4 cup). Serve over whatever you wish: rice, veggies, soba, tofu, etc. As noted above, here are the directions if you wish to make chicken-style cauliflower (it works with tofu as well): combine 1/2 cup any type of flour with 1/2 cup water, dip florets of one head cauliflower into this mixture, bake 20 minutes at 425F, then pour the sauce on top and bake another few minutes.
View Orange Sauce Nutrition Facts
LINK OF THE DAY:
YUM! I love Chinese food, but don’t like the sugar or MSG that goes into making it, so I’ll definitely have to try this!
Looks great, thanks for sharing the recipe! It’s always such a surprise when you share a non-dessert recipe 🙂
I can’t tell you hoe impressed I am that you experimented until you got the sauce right. I don’t have that kind of patience! This looks amazing – well done 🙂
Yum!! I love that you did it over cauliflower – it looks sooo delicious
I LOVE LOVE LOVE sesame chicken…and broccoli in garlic sauce is pretty good too. But I to get what I call a “sushi hangover,” or sometimes a “Chinese food hangover,” where my eyes are puffy from all of that blasted salt!!
And Katie, I must tell you that I recommend your site on a weekly basis. I am A HUGE FAN and hope you do a book tour and will come to Vermont. You have a place to stay if you do!!!
Thank you so much, Allison!
This is amazing. You have the best ideas!
I have to agree with you about the Americanized Chinese restaurant dishes….when I first came back to the U.S. from Singapore I was like, General Tso’s chicken? Cheese wontons??? What is that? Like you, my favorite real Chinese dishes don’t have American names. But for “American Chinese” restaurant dishes, my favorite would be sweet and sour chicken!
I love seeing the savory recipes every now and then Katie – thanks so much! As a girl who’s cutting back on her meat consumption it’s great to be armed with recipes like these when the Chinese cravings hit. Thanks again Katie!
Looks scrumptious I’m gonna try the popcorn method with the cauiflower. I was just thinking about how to sneak more cauliflower in and volia, there was your post. Thank you Miss Katie
This looks awesome! I would have never imagined this was cauliflower.